I always enjoy seeing them come to life with all the markings!!!!  Well done!  She's a real beauty!  You've captured the stain glass look beautifully.  I want to know how you got the white "S", in the green stripe to stand out like that?  Tell us your secret...

Not meant so much as to denigrate any particular group of people as much as...things take on a life of their own...stuff happens...and we take it from there.   From a historical point of view...there must have been a few disappointed folk in that group.  

As to the model...there has always been a large debate as to an opaque finish...or one that is translucent.  For me, the first begs for detail while the later leaves that up to a viewer's imagination (and removes the responsibility from this builder)...paint or clear dope....  Myself...I like the "illustrated airplane." 

In deference to detail...LG is "beefed up" a little...for appearance sake...by slipping some neoprene tubing over the wire...with some "chrome" paint added.  It's not a lot of detail...but a concession. 

I think we all "love" those pre-war color schemes used by the War Department for public relations purposes.  Myself...did going to subdued schemes really make that much difference during the war...probably not...at least in the air.  Got pretty brazen in the end...what with bare-metal finish schemes.  I remember asking my old friend Wayne Davis (B-17G waist gunner...Blues In The Night) if he could see the finish detail on those 109's and 190's over Germany....  That got a definite NO...no time...just gun flashes on the wings...otherwise...was a speck.    Obviously...that was justification for all those silhouette recognition drills.  Friend or foe...all were in peril whenever within range...as a Little Friend, you had to KNOW that every gunner in The Box was watching you very carefully.

Thanks, Tom and TMG.

Neal

She's a real beauty!!!

Kerak wrote on Apr 4^th, 2023 at 3:18pm:

I do and have all along. Your history on these aircraft is very interesting and gives some understanding of the way the war department tried to keep up with the changing events. This was happening when I was a child but never knew any of these events, way too young and they fade away as newer history consumes them. Thanks for keeping those moments in front of us.
Mike

Lexington yellow tails...top wing is covered as well...working on some wheels.

Nice green cowling...tissue...Section 5 Leader's aircraft...No. 13...will have a green section leaders fuselage band...2-S-13, USS Lexington CV-2...and a green inverted chevron on the top wing.  Cowl flap ring is a double-layer of fuselage grey (ersatz aluminium) tissue.

Neal

Neal,
You're getting this tissue thing down really well!  Looks great!

Thank you, Friends...all is not perfect...but I'm satisfied....  Consider that I've had to alter my usual approach to tissue work...accomplished while sitting on the couch in the family room watching flicks with my wife.    I mean...I've always multi-tasked, but her current health status (hers/ours) means that in order to maintain companionship...you get the picture.    If I engage in this fun as usual...by myself in my den...after an hour she's asking where I've been all day!    Hey...it works.  Just watched "Amelia"...world's worst aviator.  It's only a movie...but seriously, "We're flying on a north-south bearing?"  She really did radio those words...everyone assumed she was north of Howland...when she was probably south and flying in a south-southeast direction...toward Gardner Island (Nikimaroro)...reciprocal bearing.

Thoughts of constructing an L10 Electra...what?  I recall when that movie first came out...told my Dad about it (in his assisted-living facility)...his response was "Is she still missing?"   Did you know...many years later a woman pilot flying an L10 actually flew Amelia's round-the-world flight successfully....  

Here's the rub...following Amelia's departure from Lae...she never acknowledged any two-way communications whatsoever...which would have been a sure sign that something was amiss with her reception antennae...a critical item for being directed onto Howland Island.  There's reasonable evidence that it (the antennae) was damaged on takeoff at Lae.  A simple radio-check would have checked that out immediately.  Why would she fail to realize she'd heard from no-one?  Did Amelia know nothing about radio wave propagation?  Why did she...everyone...assume she was north of Howland...and NOT south?  She elected in effect, to fly blind with NO MARGIN FOR ERROR.

Neal